Finland, Music and Equity

Over the last months we have given considerable  attention to trying to learn from Finland’s outstanding accomplishments over the last decades in creating   from a very poor base one of the world’s highest performing  school systems, building on a foundation which puts the concept of equity at the vital core of their policy and performance.  And over the last several decades, the country has likewise undergone an enormous transition to become a leading country as well in the field of classical music, transforming it from “a moribund luxury into a vital part of everyday life.”  Let’s have a look at this short article on  “Finland’s Classical Crescendo” and see if there are any lessons to be gleaned for our work in the mobility sector.

Thinking about Equity-Based Transport Systems: Get Ready to Embrace Complexity (or Get Off the Bridge)

As is or at least should by now be well known, a transportation “system” is well more than a collection of largely free-standing bits of infrastructure, modes, links, agencies, institutions, operators and more.  It is in fact a textbook example of a disorganized complex system, or more specifically a vast, chaotic but ultimately manageable ecosystem.  And if it is our ambition — which it should be — to construct, or rather reconstruct, our city transport systems into functional high-performing sustainable ecosystems. it can help to build up our understanding of the process in steps.